How Translators Price Their Work: Per Word, Page, Line or Hour

Translation prices look confusing because different markets count different units. Once you know the units, comparing quotes is straightforward.

The units

• Per word — the international default. Usually counted in the source text, so the client knows the cost up front.
• Per line — common in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where a Normzeile is 55 characters including spaces.
• Per page — in Italy a cartella is traditionally 1,500 characters (or 1,800 for editorial work) including spaces; other countries use similar "standard pages".
• Per hour — for editing, revision, post-editing, transcreation and anything hard to count.
• Per 1,000 words or flat fee — common in literary translation.

What changes the price

1. Language pair and direction. More translators means more competition: English>Spanish is usually cheaper than English>Icelandic.
2. Specialisation. Legal, medical, patent and financial work costs more than general content.
3. Deadline. Rush jobs and weekend work carry surcharges, often 25–50%.
4. Volume and repetition. CAT tools detect repeated and similar sentences; agencies apply discounts for these matches.
5. Client type. Direct clients usually pay more than agencies, which add project management and their own margin.
6. Extras. Certification, formatting, desktop publishing and a second-linguist revision.

Indicative per-word ranges

These bands are rough, for general commercial work, and vary a lot between markets and specialisations — treat them as a starting point for research, not a price list.

Calculate a quote

Literary translation is different

Book translations are often paid per 1,000 words or as a flat fee, sometimes with royalties. Fees are typically lower per word than commercial work, but the credit, creative satisfaction and potential royalties make up part of the value. See how to become a literary translator.